one very small step for lego man

Canada (Two Teenagers + Lego Man) Takes Over American Space Program

Things have not been going so well for America’s space program. We had a sad when we read about how the Obama Administration basically told Barack he could not have any exciting or inspirational “moon shot” programs, because everything had to go to Wall Street (heh heh). So not only did “moon shot”-style inspirational programs such as the “national smart energy grid” or whatever get killed, but the actual NASA program to send people to the Moon and to Mars got killed. Granted, those programs were giant boondoggles and probably never would’ve sent anyone anywhere, except to federal prison for bribery, but …. And now two Canadian kids have sent a (Lego) man into space, for about $400.

The clever kids put their Lego man holding a Canadian flag on a little Lego gangplank attached to a cheap weather balloon, and soon history was made:

The mission was the result of the hard work and ingenuity of friends Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad, who worked on their project during free time on weekends. It took them four months to complete and cost just $400.

The space-bound contraption the two 17-year-olds came up with comprised an $85 weather balloon, a homemade parachute, a Styrofoam box, three point-and-shoot cameras, a wide-angle video camera, and a cell phone loaded with a GPS app so they’d be able to find the thing when it (hopefully) returned to Earth.

The Lego hero actually went to space! And then he landed in his Space Ship about 75 miles away, and the teens stole a car or whatever — took public transportation, we bet! Oh Canada! — and picked up their contraption. Now they are heroes, and Newt Gingrich is down in Florida trying to turn the Kennedy Space Center into the Newt Gingrich Historical Whore Diamond Moonraker Adultery Space Motel. [Digital Trends]

That couldn't be done with a weather balloon. It would take at least a blimp – if not a Zepplin.

nounverb911

The Hindenburg?

MOG2410

Oh the humanity. Or not.

Tundra Grifter

What's the difference between Russ Limbaugh and the Hindenburg?

One is a bloated Nazi gasbag.

The other is a dirigible.

memzilla

I'd like to see that accomplished with the well-known Diet Coke and Mentos launch system.

soeoho

It seems the physics of thermal ambience (hot air) has been overlooked. He'd be well into the stratosphere with a physically lofty gain plus the collateral benefits of a reduction of global warming and Gingrichouse-gasses..

Beowoof

Another job for a heavy payload Saturn V.

Lionel[redacted]Esq

Even the Saturn V isn't big enough to lift Newt to the heavens. I say we dig out some of our old nuclear bombs and see if a series of explosions will do it. I'm sure Newt will be happy to ride on top, given his interest in space.

chascates

I blame Canada for everything. Having better healthcare, more enlightened cannabis laws, not trying to run the world, and having so little gun violence.

I KNOW! When the Repubicans say Obama wants to make America like Europe, I say "bring it on". They live longer, have less crime, lower abortion rate (hear that Ricky S.), and whole place is like a great big Epcot.

Rotundo_

You didn't even bring up food or television quality or cars or……

MOG2410

or working 40 hours a week, instead of 60 and taking VACATION!!!

Lascauxcaveman

Having better healthcare, more enlightened cannabis laws,

Heh. Once again, my little town tucked up in the corner of Washington state shows it's really more Canadian that American. There is something inherently Canadian about swapping dope for bicycles.

Negropolis

Trust me; if they had 300,000,000 million people, they'd have an ego, too. You try taking over the world with a population less than that the state of California. Just sayin'.

Meh. If it doesn't explode around a bunch of brown people after re-entry, it doesn't count.

chicken_thief

Those ain't "real Canadians".. Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad is a chink and a mooslin attempting to force Sharia Space Law down our galaxy's throat. Now that they have taken over the White House they are going after the moon and beyond!!!!

SorosBot

We're gonna lose Mars to the Chinese-Muslim alliance if we don't get there quick! Another $100 billion to Boeing ASAP!!

prommie

"Where else but the US, or possibly Canada, would a family of immigrants have the opportunity to build a succesful chain of discount wheel-balancing centers?"

YasserArraFeck

"Jim, Ah cannae change the laws of Islam!!!!"

Goonemeritus

I refuse to ceed space to a nation with someone else’s Queen on their money.

Edit— Real Canadians would have used Mega Bloks.

Guppy

Did they finally confirm those rumors about Wilfrid Laurier?

MilwaukeeKent

Hey that's my great great uncle — you watch what you say about "The Fiver"!
If you're talking about the rumor that he hired his brother-in-law to run the post office…

You ain't never been to Montreal then. The poutine proves that our cheez fries are sadly lacking. It has cheese AND gravy.

Chichikovovich

Maybe, but I haven't found a decent plate of poutine since I left.

James Michael Curley

Place on Fifth Ave in Pittsburgh used to take the fries, put on cheddar cheese curds (probably just melted and separated cheddar cheese) heat it under the broiler, then put on a ladle of dark brown gravy. Only place in Pittsburgh and it was thirty years ago.

This sending weather balloons up into space with a camera thing is going to get out of hand. I have a bad feeling about one of these being run into by a 747…

Lascauxcaveman

Yeah, those and all those Canada geese that get sucked into jet engines every day. Why does Canada hate civil aviation?

bagofmice

Let's see, a plastic bag, a few legos, and a cell phone meet 975,000 pounds of plane travelling at 400 miles an hour. I wonder what will happen.

jus_wonderin

If we could just send up a self replicating nanite, we could maybe finally build a cool set of Ray Ban Aviator shades so we could look at solar eclipes without pinholes and sheets of cardboard.

Tundra Grifter

Who tried to light forest fires in the US of A with high-altitude balloons?

nounverb911

Hello Kitty's grandfather?

Tundra Grifter

WIN !!!

Don't forget, Japan, Italy, and Germany (twice) were against us before they were for us. Russia, of course, was for us before they were against us. And after they quit the Great War like an Alaskan governor.

prommie

Who tried to burn down cities by bombing them with bats carrying mini-incendiary bombs?

Those were trial runs to see if the delivery system worked as any news about fires would be unlikely targets of wartime censorship. If the delivery platforms worked well enough, the delivery of biological warfare weapons were next. See Unit 731's activities here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731

Plague fleas from Canada? Not likely, but keep trying boys!

BaldarTFlagass

I keep waiting for Mr Hands and Sluggo to show up in that video and fuck that Canadian astronaut's shit up.

$400 is pretty cheap compared to the way America does things but it doesn't supply money to our glorious free market. The U.S. way: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203…The Defense Department has spent about $330 million so far to develop about 20 of the bombs (HUGE bunker busters!), which are built by Boeing Co. The Pentagon is seeking about $82 million more to make the bomb more effective, according to government officials briefed on the plan.

That's a little over 20 million bucks for one bomb that's almost guaranteed to start another Mideast war. Canada can explore space on the cheap. We'll spend fortunes to stir up hatred for America.

MrFizzy

That thing looks a hell of a lot like Rumsfeld. Rummy, is that you?

EatsBabyDingos

Muhammad and a 'Ho walked into a bar in Arizona…

nounverb911

Jan Brewer?

WhatTheHeck

Would never happen. They are Brothers from another Planet and therefore illegal aliens.

So now we know where all that innovative aptitude's been hiding: the youth of Canada.
No surprise it couldn't get any footing in the U. S. of A. I liken this innovative capacity, personify or characterize it even, to a jaded and somewhat amusement-challenged MumbletyYoungster back in the day. Who, like this fabled Innovation Spirit, spent some time looking over the options for joy rides at the theme park — 'Thunder Road' ("USA! USA!"); 'White Lightning' ("We're No. 1! Proud to be an American); then ditched these local thrillbillies for Space Mountain, natch.

prommie

This just proves the arguments of the free-marketeers and the libertarians, bold, inventive entrepeneurs can do anything the government does, and do it better, faster, leaner, and meaner! Give these boys a billion-dollar contract to supply the ISS, using weather balloons and lego astronauts! Yay!

bagofmice

There's a slight science problem.

The ISS is roughly travelling at 18,000 mph to maintain orbit, and it at a greatly higher altitude to stay out of the atmosphere which is buoying the baloon.

Yes, there is a little bit of a science problem, isn't there? I guess this does not prove the theories of the free-marketers and libertarians to be correct after all, those theories fail to take into account the enormous cost of overcoming these technical issues. I am so glad you have turned my head on this, I was about to go vote for Ron Paul.

WhatTheHeck

Next mission for the two teenagers:
“StarTrek – The Wrath of Khanada.”

AnAmericanInTO

This is such a great story and a happy counterpoint to the depressing Shafia honor killing trial that resulted in a pissed off judge and three pieces of garbage spending a looooong ass time in prison.http://tinyurl.com/6obheqa

Chichikovovich

Thank God that trial is finally over. Every day I would check the newspaper online [OK, OK, Christie Blatchford in the National Post, so not really a newspaper. But nobody does outrage like Blatchford.] And every time I did, I wanted to march up to Kingston and strangle those three smug weasels myself.

JackDempsey1

I hope they kept the camera on long enough to capture the footage where the lizard thing bursts out of Mr. Lego's chest cavity.

The Dominion of Callista (formerly known as "space and all the shit in it") is newtficially US territory now–hands off, Canadia!

DaRooster

And then he landed in his Space Ship about 75 miles away, and the teens stole a car or whatever — took public transportation, we bet! Oh Canada! — and picked up their contraption contraception.

At 17 it really can be embarrassing asking for that stuff in your home town.

SayItWithWookies

While aloft, the Legonaut sent back a message: "Hey, this looks just like Canada — there's nobody here, either."

freakishlywrong

Our kids. Isn't learnin'.

DahBoner

$400????

Why so much?

So sorry, Hockey Maple Syrup Round Bacon people, but AmeriCANS did this several years ago, for less than $150…

LiveToServeYa

Yes, I remember this. But you can't expect Ken to pay attention to achievements of Americans when he's busy pointing to the furreners whupping our asses every which way. How do you expect him to make his point?

It seems the physics of thermal ambience (hot air) has been overlooked. He'd be well into the stratosphere with a physically lofty gain plus the collateral benefits of a reduction of global warming and Gingrichouse-gasses..

Extemporanus

Too bad the boys didn't have another five Loonies to play with, or they could've gotten a space-suited Lego man and made something other than a frozen-smiled snuff film for toy torturers.

MissTaken

Until Canadians figure out that Halifax is 4 hours ahead of SF and quit sending me conference call requests for 6 am they can suck my big toe.

SorosBot

You're just lucky to be a morning person having to deal with that shit.

MissTaken

I knew it was way too fucking early when I was commenting this morning before you.

SorosBot

I know; I was surprised to see a bunch of comments from you that must have been around six AM your time. Will you at least get to go home early in return?

You people are saying mean things about us in this thread. Truly, Canadians are the most persecuted people on the continent. Worse than Christians, even.

owhatever

Doesn't anyone beside visionary Newt see the real danger of letting Canadian kids sending unauthorized Lego Klingon ballloons into space whenever they get bored? Next, they will attach firecrackers to their battle cruisers and attack our potential 51st state moon colony! If Canada won't deal with them, one of our teams of trained seals will do the job just fine.

So Canada has tons of homosexuality, rampant incest, and absolutely no in-fighting as a result? Sounds about right.

Negropolis

Canada: Making Love, Not War Since 1867.

BigDumbRedDog

Canadians get everything wrong. This should have been a lego space man with his little lego helmet and little lego oxygen tank. Or at least a lego star wars character. I am going to shoot my entire lego moon command center from the eighties up into space, followed by my lego medieval castle and lego fire station just for the hell of it.

Larry McAwful

That, like all those other "moon landings", was obviously faked.

mavenmaven

Let's launch Allen West on one of those.

thefrontpage

The Zoraks, the indigenous people who have lived on the Moon for the last 1 billion years, issued this statement today, Monday, Jan. 30, 2012:

"The Zoraks have told the Lego People and the Canadiens repeatedly that they will not stand for any permanent, or temporary, type of 'base' on Zorak land on the Moon, which is pretty much most of the Moon. We have also told the Americans, the Russians, the Japanese and the Norwegians, which for some reason have a space program, that we will not tolerate any bases on our lands on the Moon, and any attempts to construct such bases will be met with force. The Zoraks have lived peacefully on the Moon for more than 1 billion years, and we intend to continue living on our rightful, legal lands for another 1 billion years." The Zoraks number about 350,000, but they have been the rightful, legal owners of most of the lands on the Moon for more than 1 billion years. They are led by the Zorak family, which has ruled the Moon lands for more than 1 billion years.

Before this decade is out, these Canucks will land a Lego toy on the Moon and return it safely to Earth, for less than the cost of 1000 Tim Horton's jelly donuts.

Data Exactly

I thought there's not supposed to be any sound in space, yet we can hear rustling in the background or something?!?

Negropolis

So, what you're saying is that this was filmed in a Hollywood studio…

Data Exactly

Ontario is supposed to be Canada's Hollywood, was it…?!?

Tundra Grifter

I am not an expert. However, I can't imagine a good end if a cell phone, 4 cameras, long lengths of paracord, and/or a weather balloon get sucked into a jet engine. I mean, look at the damage a freakin' bird can do…

Also, not to take away from what these kids did because it is pretty cool, but their balloon only went about 16 or 17 miles up. The generally agreed-upon demarcation between Earth's atmosphere and outer space is the Karman Line, and it's 62 miles up. So Lego Man would have had to go quite a bit higher to get into outer space.

Negropolis

Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad

Lemme guess: metro Toronto, right? You know, it so wasn't right for them to call that Mathew kid names. Ho? Grow up.

Meh. You were warned, Canada. You know what we do to countries that make us look bad, don't you? That's a nice country you got there; it'd be a shame if anything happened to America Jr…A non-weaponized weather balloon? How Canadian.